SiN is the ORIGINAL half-life mod. The game is so bland and predictable, and so much like every other FPS you've ever played in the last 10 years, but it was the FIRST of its kind. You think starting a game with a heli-mounted machine gun section is a filthy cliche? SiN INVENTED that. Cover based shooting? Charging berzerker bosses? Terrible voice acting? Unplayable forced stealth sections? Sewer levels? SiN is guilty of every cliche in the modern FPS dictionary because it INVENTED every cliche in the modern FPS dictionary. SiN is so far ahead of it's time while paradoxically so stuck in the past that it boggles my mind.

The levels are unintuitive, and will have you backtracking constantly. The enemies are either far too easy or tear off 50% of your health unavoidably. The weapons are uninspired and bland as all hell. The stealth is garbage and isn't even worth attempting unless you HAVE to. The game is absolute balls compared to it's source material, but you know what? Blade, the protagonist is the most Bad-♥♥♥ Mofo I have EVER played, the levels are supremely rewarding, the voice acting may be ♥♥♥♥, but is full of charm. The game is beautifully cinematic in a B-movie sort of way.

SiN is a masterpiece, it is so fantastically average, it exists in trancendant mediocrity. SiN is the BEST WORST GAME EVER MADE.

A very interesting and nuanced game besieged by a couple of issues and unexplained and wonky plot that was intended to be cleared up by the third episode. Unfortunately, it didn't sell enough to make a sequel. It recouped costs, but didn't even get near the jumping-off point they needed for EP2. So, Ritual was bought by MumboJumbo, a casual games outfit, and SiN is doomed to the aether of inexistence.

One of the most prolific devs, Levelord (A parallel Gabe if there was one) has entirely moved on* from the games industry and without his influence the odds are not a single peep will ever be heard again from SiN. Which is a shame, because it showed promise.

A doomed sequel to a relatively unknown game that got clouded out by Quake 2 and Half-Life. Such a waste of potential that it died so soon. Worth a buy and a play.

This is really a good game. Lot's of fun. I have enjoyed it more than some newer games which cost much more money. I , like others have said, really wish this game could be picked up and continued with more episodes. If you are looking to buy it I think you'll be glad if you do and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sin Episodes: Emergence is a first episode of a project that never saw its completion. From the visual point of view it looks and feels like Half Life 2. Weapons, enemies, levels everything resembles a well-known Valve creation. However, it does not make Sin Episodes: Emergence a bad game, because the combat is addicting and fun. But, it takes around 3-4 hours to beat what is a real shame, and I wish Elexis Sinclaire had more time on the screen. Overall my score is 7 out of 10, not so good but not terrible either.

PROS (+)STORYThe story is well done at last is a series of SiN. The game takes place in an already known to us from the previous game, John Blade who was imprisoned by Elexis Sinclaire his main opponent and her new assistant, Victor Radek SiNTEK in life sciences. Suddenly there is an explosion and a helper saves us a new Jessica Cannon. Lab starts to burn after Radek and Elexis flee. After leaving the labolatories we grab Radek and destroy his evil plans.MUSICWhat a revelation to the music, the songs have a great listening sometimes even a little was left menu to listen to "What's the world come to" by Zak Bellic and Sarah Ravenscroft.GRAPHICSThe game runs on the familiar to us from Half-Life 2 Source engine and honestly the graphics look a little worse than in hl2 but it does the trick and is not bad :)PHYSICSAs for the physics that we see here is the same as in Half-Life 2, pick up objects, a perfect system of Ragdoll etc ...AIAs for the artificial intelligence of enemies and adversaries it looks a little different than in Half-Life which is better: the enemies of helping each other in need and throw various objects at us. As for the AI allies is the same as in Half-Life 2 which are immortal.

CONS (-)LENGTH OF TRANSITION GAMEThe game lasts somewhere so for a maximum of three hours of fun, this is a wine that the game had come out in 9 episodes and walked only one.NUMBER OF WEAPONSThe game features only three types of weapons. These are:-Magnum Pistol (is there an alternative shoot)-Shotgun (Has bullets bouncing off the walls)-Assault Rifle (firing a bomb)+ Grenades

SUMMARY:If you love the game for 3-4 hours is recommended, when you buy you will get also free the first part of the game, if the game is too short for you, I would not recommend. I personally liked the game in terms of climate which is better than the HL :)8/10

****EDGY GAME BE WARNED****This game is Half Life 2 If it was really edgyDo you remeber the type of kid in school who thought he was morpheus and wore a trench coat, boots. Was really into Korn and NIN. that kid would love this gameThe first thing you see in the game in the main Villan I guess and she has GAINT T I T S with jiggle physics see the team who made thise most likely didnt know many women and were really into the Matrix also there is some flashback or memory thing soon after i really dont knowwhere you see this woman in a biki for like 20 seconds for no reason in a lake of some kindwould have loved that when i was like 12 when this came out but its cringey as ♥♥♥♥ now.all the women in this game are edgy with stupidly big t i t s in tight leather gear(trinity from the matrix), and the dudes are pony tail sporting gungslingers (brony wet dream)it reminds me of 90s/ 2000s comics mixed with the matrix and dues EXbut it made by a nerds who are most likely juggalosThe guy you play as is named John BLADE hahahah the main gameplay is near to HL2this game has soilders you shoot(combine), then mutants kinda simular to the zombies in HL2. thinks its physics puzzels are new and interesting, it is interesting to play in the way its fun to watch matrix rip offsits decent but A LOT is ripped off from HL2 and the game is in the source engine so its very obvious that said the animations on most the charaters are very smooth and so are the gun animations when people talk tho, it does look like those kinda high end gmod videos its a little oddBut yeah i enjoyed it, the edgy voice acting like "we are going south central of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ YOU"the Jessica girl who acts as this games alyx uses the word b i t c h alotinteresting to play its something old dated, familar yet unfamilar at the same timecant wait for episode 2 hahaha noalso when i beat the game there was some kinda blooper real with your mother jokes, the word ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and mother f uc ker used alot, EDGY HAHA

Don't forget, try to make sure my corpse is easily identifiable, BLADE! That way my family will get a faster life insurance payout, BLADE! Of course don't forget to loot my corpse, BLADE! And make sure you pick up my ammo, BLADE!

PS: I'll get you BLADE. (Psssst. Kill me, BLADE! I'm 3 days away from my pension, BLADE! But make sure it will look like an accident, BLADE!)

Interesting story and atmosphere, the gameplay felt right and when it came out, the graphics were great and the price was low. Even the challenge mode was astonishingly demanding and rewarding at the same time.

Such a promising start of a game series - and so disappointing that there was never a next part.

***I WROTE THIS REVIEW IN 2006... Found it on my HD and reposted it because I felt it still holds up- hope you enjoy it***

Gameplay:

If you figured the gameplay would be similar to Half-Life 2 because they use the same engine, you would figure correctly. The movement of the characters, the inside and outside environment with impressive lighting and of course the physics are almost identical to Half-Life 2.

Because SiN uses the same engine has HL2, one might think the games would be so strikingly similar SiN would completely rip off Hl2 in its entirely. Although the enemies are similar, both games include soldiers in armored suit that sounds like they are talking out of some sort of walkie-talkie, there is enough original material for you to forget about HL2 and start thinking SiN.

One of the more original ideas is to take the healing method from HL2 and modify it. SiN makes you search for empty canisters that can be found throughout the game, and carry them to wall mounted health stations where they can be used to spray a healing blue cloud. Other times when you are too lazy to carry the canister, you can just shoot them and the healing cloud will be released around the area, allowing a quick heal but not as complete as it would have been if you had taken it to the station.

Another neat feature they added was a type of chemical agent, that when exposed to, it increased your response time dramatically. What does that mean? Well it means they kinda copied F.E.A.R and Max Payne and slowed down time a bit so the player can react to apposing enemies better. This feature is not controllable, but rather goes into affect when a canister is broken in a gun battle and you walk through he green cloud. The time it takes to wear off is represented as a green bar on the left side of the screen. But be careful. Too much exposure will result in the loss of health.

Over the course of the game, Blade will interact with a few different characters. We saw in HL2 how impressive Valve was able to create life like faces and by playing through the game, you can see this effect was used in SiN.

Blade also fights along side the hot Jessica Cannon who pretty much resembles Alyx from HL2 and does most of the talking. But Alyx didn't have her thong strings poking above her hips now did she?

Gun battles are similar to HL2. You are given a handgun at the propitiate time and gradually upgrade to an assault rifle and shotgun, but that's it. I'm guessing the plan on releasing more guns as the episodes continue, but it gets a little repetitive using the same guns after a while. Most of the soldiers are easy to kill, until you get to the more armored mini-gun soldiers. One thing SiN lacks that HL2 incorporated so well was a scare factor. SiN ignores this approach and aims for a more typical shooter where you can see your enemy coming from a couple of feet down the hall or road.

A couple of notes as I investigated SiN a bit further. I read afterwards that SiN apparently keeps track of your shooting statistics. The data isn't kept for you to print out and nail to your dorm room wall, but the game actually analyzes the data and will adjust the difficulty level of the game as your progress through the game. For example; if the game see that out of your last 10 kills, 9 of them were headshots, you may see soldiers appear with helmets or dodge your fire more often. As I think about it now, I can remember a few instances in the game where I tired to kill an armored soldier and took a lot more ammo then I previously had used. Very impressive idea for the date of this game.

Graphics/Sound:

SiN is filled with crisp luminous lighting in various different areas of the game. The soft pastel sunset with a mirrored reflection over the water looks great and need I say HL2ish? There are numerous scenes throughout the game where you stop fighting and shooting, and just take a moment to look at the scenery, or when you're inside, look at the detail of some of the rooms.

The monster and mutant skins are nothing special, except for the two giant ones you end up fighting, but I have a feeling they are going to release a few more enemies in the next episode.

Again, the faces on most of the characters look extremely realistic and in the very opening scene, you will notice an obvious feature that they added to one of the bad guys…or should I say bad girl.

Bottom Line: For $9.99 you will receive a fun, quick FPS shooter. It's a bummer Ritual claimed they have 4-6 more hours of upcoming episodes, which were eventually canceled. The entire episode took between 3-4 to complete.

That this series never made it past the first episode is one of the greatest losses in the history of gaming.

It is awesome.

I know the Half-Life series gets a lot of credit - as well it should. But the Half-Life series has some serious gameplay flaws - like being forced to complete platforming puzzles without being able to see your own feet, or constant reliance on those annoying and frustrating sandlions, and so on.

This is a Source engine game, and it plays very much like Half-Life 2, just without those glaring flaws that have become even more glaring over time.

This game holds up extremely well. In the days of PhysX, its use of native Source engine physics is still impressive. It's level design is consumate. It's difficulty can be adjusted incredibly well. The voice acting is as decent as you can expect from a game of its day.

Indeed - and in a very real way - if you can look past the unfinished plot, you will see glimpses of gaming brilliance that, sadly, went unnoticed in its day, and largely still does.

If you have $9.99 and love shooters, this game is a must-have, especially now that nearly everyone has the tech in their rigs to max its settings to proper HD, enhance with proprietary GPU driver filters, and really enjoy the experience as the designers intended.

There are some flaws in the game itself, but bear in mind it was supposed to be the 1st of 9 episodes. These flaws are an over-reliance on just one or two types of enemies, for example, and a few bugs in the AI that, understandably, never got patched. Unfortunately, it is just plain tough to tell where the designers were going with enemy design and how these one or two basic enemies were going to relate to what may have come.

All of that said, just drop the tenner and get it. It deserves it, and maybe, just maybe, if enough people show interest, the series will be picked up again.

What HL2 should have been.Fast paced, fun, explosive, and incomplete, SiN : Emergence is one of the saddest things in the universe.This was supposed to be an episodic series of short first person shooters (this may not have been the smartest idea), but the company went bankrupt and was bought off to make casual games after half of the team left the studio.

The company was killed by ridiculous marketing. Nobody in their right mind would pay 10 euros for a 2-3 hours long episode.

However, I consider this well worth the asking price.Not only for the original SiN (it's pure gold) but also because this little episode is very interesting.The core gameplay manages to be fun and stay fresh with only 3 weapons (A very reliable pistol, a shotgun, and an SMG), incendiary grenades, a melee attack, and a secondary fire for every weapon.That's pretty impressive.The level design is very similar to something like SoF, with some elements borrowed from HL2.Think HL 2 on steroids.You're constantly running around, jumping, shooting stuff, and fighting your way through well designed arenas.

The experience will leave you wondering what amazing things could have come from Ritual.